ᴀʙᴅɪᴛᴏʀʏ || baek kyung

Hook, Line, And Sinking Your Ship As It Leaves the Shore

Hook, Line, And Sinking Your Ship As It Leaves the Shore

Dohwa thumped him on the back, "Congratulations on making it till three months. Did you plan something for her?"

"Jia will kill me if I do." Kyung reclined on the couch of their room, sighing, "She cried in the shower because she couldn't fit into her jeans so she wants to stay in. And I couldn't bring myself to tell her that they had shrunk when I put them in the wash so there's that."

"Well, you're dead if you tell her and you're dead if you don't." He replied flatly, barely sympathizing with his friend.

Kyung scowled, "Living with her isn't as easy as it looks. She watched a video of a piece of bread falling over like a domino and laughed about it for ten minutes. Two days ago, I woke up in the middle of the night to find her missing from our bed. She was singing 'Stupid Cupid' while stress-baking because of a Physics assignment."

Getting up, Dohwa gathered his belongings, "And yet you love her."

"Of course I do." He smiled before standing as well, "You go on ahead. I need to talk to Joonhyun."

☘☘☘

At first, Kyung had brushed off his father's words as empty threats. Then he caught Joonhyun limping to school one day. The boy had brushed it off, saying that he had twisted his ankle the previous day. But Kyung knew better.

"You need to convince your mother to leave him." He told Joonhyun, feeling unadulterated rage towards their father. He didn't care about the other woman but he cared about his brother. "You both need to leave."

Shaking his head, Joonhyun tried to explain, "It's not what it looks like. It—It wasn't dad, hyung. I—"

"I'm not an idiot, Joonhyun." He spat, "You know that he's been forcing me to meet him, don't you? What do you think he's been threatening me about?"

The boy lowered his head in shame, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

"Don't apologize." Kyung said firmly, "You're not responsible for that man's lack of restraint. He shouldn't be raising his hand on you to make up for his incompetence. Our only fault is that we're related to him."

☘☘☘

Joonhyun promised him that he'd talk to his mother about it and that he'd try to make their father see sense as well.

That had to be the most bald-faced lie Kyung had ever heard.

☘☘☘

Jia spewed a series of curses, lying on the track field as the summer sun burned overhead. Her friends were too exhausted by the heat and too preoccupied by trying to jog to realize that she had collapsed.

"How are you still on your first lap?" Kyung stood over her, hands on his waist and bare minimum sweat on his forehead.

She wheezed, clutching her lungs, "I. Can't breathe. Do you think I have emphysema?"

"No. You just can't run." He stuck out his hand to help her up.

"Sorry that I'm not a born athlete like you." Jia scowled, accepting his help. "I don't see the point in running in this weather. It's like they want us to pass out—what are you doing?"

Kyung had begun to jog again, while tugging her along. "Don't breathe too fast while running. Try finishing this lap. You're almost till the end."

"Just say you want me to hate you." She tried to keep pace with him anyway.